Lake Havasu City, Arizona

I'm thrilled to finally be able to get completely caught up on here and tell you all about where we are currently at and what we are doing!

As the title of this post suggests, we are now in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.  We have been here for about 3 1/2 weeks now and so far we love it!  The landscape is pretty much the same as the rest of the areas we have been in Arizona...desert, cacti, and rocky mountains...but there is one huge difference.  There's WATER here!!! 

Lake Havasu City sits right at the banks of a wide spot in the Colorado River.  The word "Havasu" (have-uh-sue) comes from the Havasupai Tribe and means "blue-green water".  What a true statement that is!  The water is crystal clear and beautiful, especially against the desert landscape, and is already warming up as the temperatures climb...the last few days have been in the 90's and we are expected to reach 105 degrees on Sunday.  We've found lots of great places for sun-bathing and swimming...I have a great tan and feel healthy and happy nearly every day!

One of the interesting attractions of Lake Havasu City is that it is home to the world-famous London Bridge.  In 1968 it was bought from London by Robert P. McCulloch and brought piece by piece to be reconstructed across the canal here.  It was completed and re-dedicated in 1971.  The canal is a popular local spot which features shops and restaurants housed in buildings resembling those in London.  Locals and tourists alike flock to the canal on foot or by boat throughout the day...we arrived here during spring break and it was packed with college students!  They were certainly having fun but the events were well-policed and everyone behaved better than I would have expected.

Another cool thing about Lake Havasu City is that there are tons of hot rods/antique vehicles cruising the streets on a regular basis.  I have a hard time getting Mike to keep his eyes on the road around here because he's eyeballing all the vehicular eye candy!  Here are a couple of photos taken at a random show that took place in a parking lot...on a Thursday!

By now you may be wondering where we are staying...there are two BLM camping areas, one on each end of the city.  We are at the one on the North side, camped about 3 miles down a dirt road into the desert/mountains.  It's "dry-camping", no electricity, water, etc., but we can't complain because the camping is free and we can get to the city rather quickly when we need water or other supplies.  There's tons of hiking to do back there and lots of wildlife to experience.  So far we have seen lizards, snakes, big horn sheep, coyote, scorpions, wild burro, kangaroo rats, and probably more that I'm forgetting since we've been here.

We call our site the "Happy Face Camp"...you might be able to guess why! (We didn't do it...but it sure does make us smile. :) )

Big Horn Sheep

Lizard Sunning on a Rock

Of course while living the way we are is cheap, it certainly isn't free.  This fact inspired us to yet again go on Craigslist and look for temporary work gigs we could do together to keep some money coming in.  I found an ad looking for two people to do 3 weeks of work planting Mequite trees...it sounded perfect for us so I responded and we got the job! 

The gentleman we are working for needed 30,000 Mesquite tree seeds planted in cones...based on previous employee production he anticipated that it would take us about 3 weeks - 5 days a week - to complete.  We did it in one.  I'm not sure what the previous employees were doing with the rest of the time, but sitting around talking or napping comes to mind as possibilities.

You would think that by exceeding expectations we would have worked ourselves out of a job but instead we were slated to build a wooden shed and do some painting to keep us working longer.  Now that everything in that regard is done we have been asked to be part of the next phase of the project...installing irrigation (spray and drip) on the 60 acres the trees will end up being planted at.

The location is the Avi, an indian reservation in Laughlin, Nevada, which has a resort and casino.  Our employer estimates that it will take us a month and a half to complete the installation and in addition to our regular pay we will be receiving free accomodations in a suite at the resort on site.  Who would have thought that a temporary position planting seeds could turn into this!  We should be on our way there in the next few days or so...whenever the supplies we need to start working there arrive.

20,000 cones planted - 10,000 to go!

Mesquite tree seedlings beginning to show

Full-grown Mesquite tree

Closer view of Mesquite tree branches

After our stay in Laughlin we will probably head out of the hotter areas of Arizona, as they will at that point be reaching into the 120-130 degree range.  Mike still wants to visit the Hopi Reservation in the Northeastern part of the state, which is much cooler than the southern areas, so we will probably head there next. 

I'm sure plenty will happen between now and then, however, so who knows where we'll end up but I will most likely be posting again before a decision is made!